In Nipomo, not far off the 101 freeway, sits a 288-acre ranch surrounded by ancient oak trees. It’s the proposed site of the Dana Reserve housing development.
The plan to build about 1,400 units in this unincorporated community of San Luis Obispo County is contentious and exemplifies the struggle to balance the need for housing with concerns for the environment.
The proposal is to build housing for all income levels from very low to high. The master plan incorporates parks, trails, a childcare center, and commercial buildings for restaurants and groceries.
Nick Tompkins is a long-time Nipomo resident. He’s also the owner and managing partner of NKT Commercial, the company behind the project.
“We spent a couple of years planning the project in terms of trying to find designs that would maximize the affordability of homes and provide the minimum impact on trees and still be financially viable to be able to pay for the significant infrastructure that’s required,” he said.
Tompkins said community outreach has been an ongoing part of the process.
“There are actually a surprising number of supporters that have come along and helped throughout this project and there’s also some people that are actively opposed to it,” he said.
Large regional employers like Dignity Health, and housing advocates from People’s Self-Help Housing have spoken in support of the plan.
SLO County, like most of California, is in a housing crisis. Central Coast employers say they can’t recruit staff because there’s no place for them to live. And Tompkins said the county is especially behind on building units in the category of very low income.
“The County of San Luis Obispo has only generated seven very low-income homes over the last five years. This project is generating 102,” he said.
Dana Reserve would be one of the county’s most ambitious developments in years. With very low-income and low-income units, workforce housing, age-restricted units, ADUs, and a range of moderate to high-income homes, it checks a lot of boxes.
Much of the opposition to the project is due to the removal of ancient oak trees to make way for houses. Of the 17,000 oak trees on or near the site, about 3,000 will be lost to development.
Tompkins said he’ll put a permanent conservation easement in place to protect the remaining 14,000 oaks on Dana Ridge. And as part of the mitigation process, new trees will be planted throughout the development.
But locals say it’s not as simple as replacing an old tree with a new one. It takes many, many years for an oak to mature and the existing trees hold historical and cultural significance for Nipomo.
Local youth activist Cesar Vasquez is joining with other students from the Central Coast Student Coalition to advocate for the land. He said preserving the ancient trees for future generations should be a top priority.
“If they can destroy the 3,000 trees here, they can do it anywhere and eventually, if this continues on, there’s not even going to be 3,000 trees to cut down,” he said.
Vasquez said the project’s objective to provide affordable options for Central Coast families isn’t realistic. He thinks the home prices are too high.
"Obviously SLO has a housing crisis, but this isn't helping people of SLO, this is helping the people who are going to be coming from LA," Vasquez said.
And the prolonged construction, he said, will impact air quality and damage local habitats.
“There’s three different ways to look at the detrimental effects of this – there’s the housing, the affordability of the housing, there is the health of people, and then there is the health of the land,” Vasquez said.
The student coalition, per their website, supports a community-generated alternative housing plan that reduces impacts to the trees and surrounding area.
The County of San Luis Obispo makes decisions about housing and last October, the Planning Commission approved the Dana Reserve master plan with some recommendations. It's now up to the Board of Supervisors.
KCBX contacted the office of County Supervisor Jimmy Paulding, whose district includes Nipomo, and were told he is not making any comments until after the vote.
The meeting is Tuesday, April 23, and Wednesday, April 24 in downtown SLO. More information is on the county website.
Gabriela Fernandez contributed to this story.
